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NARADA.
attended by a wager is where (either of the two parties) stakes in writing a certain sum which has to be paid besides the sum in dispute (in case of defeat).
5. In a lawsuit attended by a wager, he of the two who is cast must pay his stake and a fine when his defeat has been decided.
*6. The plaint is declared to be the essential part of a proceeding-at-law. If he succumbs with it, the defendant loses the whole suit. If he can prove the charge, he gains the suit.
*7. Gatherings (kula), corporations (sreni), assemblies (gana), one appointed (by the king), and the king (himself), are invested with the power to decide
Thus, although the sum in dispute be very considerable, one may stake two hundred Panas, or a hundred Panas, or fifty Paras only.
5. According to Asahâya, the wager must not be laid till the two first stages of the trial, the charge and the answer, are over. The wager may be laid either by the plaintiff or by the defendant. The plaintiff, whose declaration has been refuted by the defendant, stakes a certain sum on the issue of the case. Or the defendant, after having denied the correctness of the charge, stakes a certain sum on the correctness of his own statements, to be proved by the issue of the case. Asahâya does not say to whom the sum staked has to be paid in his opinion. It may be observed that, according to Burmese law, which is an offshoot of the early law of India, ten per cent. of the sum staked should be given to the judge and to the pleaders, and the remainder to the victorious party; see Richardson's Dhammathat, p. 73. Yâgñavalkya II, 18 (see Mitâksharâ).
6. Yâgñavalkya II, 8.
7. Kula means an assemblage consisting of a few persons. Sreni denotes an assemblage of eminent merchants, &c. Gana denotes a fellowship, such as e.g. the Brahman caste. A. Other commentators take kula to mean a family meeting; sreni, a company of artizans; gana, an assembly of cohabitants. These three stages of private arbitration may be compared to the modern Panchayats of India.
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